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Marc Loving after Ohio State's win at IllinoisOhio State freshman Marc Loving scored eight consecutive points during as 12-0 run in the second held that helped the No. 22 Buckeyes grab a 48-39 win over Illinois. He spoke about his performance after the game.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Marc Loving who scored 10 points in the Big Ten opener, the one who helped Ohio State erase an 18-point, second-half deficit to force overtime at Michigan State has been gone for weeks.

Then as he watched his first shot go in since late January, Loving felt like himself again.

“It was like a monkey climbed off my back,” he said.

How big? A gorilla?

“A silverback,” Loving quipped.

Though Loving is only a bench player that had seen his minutes reduced in February, the freshman went scoreless in each of Ohio State’s last four games before the No. 22 Buckeyes’ 48-39 win at Illinois on Saturday night.

And the last time Loving made a field goal was Jan. 20. He was in a funk, one he admitted was stressing him out, but coach Thad Matta said he was waiting for one shot to fall for the freshman to regain his confidence.

“I was like, ‘Man, it’s going to happen.’ He just needed to see the ball go through the basket,” Matta said. “When it finally went down, you could just see 1,000 pounds lifted off of him. I told the team afterward – if I could have gotten the game ball, I would have given it to him.”

After Loving’s first shot went through – a jumper with 10:06 remaining in the game to put Ohio State up 36-29 – it started a spurt in which the freshman scored eight consecutive points for the Buckeyes. Illinois didn’t counter.

Loving was the catalyst of a 12-0 run that lifted Ohio State to the win. His last shot, a jumper with 5:30 remaining, put the Buckeyes 42-39, their largest lead of the game. His resurgence came at the perfect time.

“I just needed to see one go in and it felt good to see one go in for once," Loving said. "Eventually the ball is going to in, and you can't keep doubting yourself. You have to have a lot of confidence in the hard work you put in.

"I am happy I kind of snapped out of it. I feel like I can provide a spark off the bench with my scoring ability and help us propel to the next level."

• Shooting issues aren't going away. I made a mistake during the postgame press conference and looked at Illinois' shooting percentage before I asked Matta if he was concerned his team shot only 28 percent from the floor. That was Illinois' percentage.

"We actually shot 38 percent," Matta said. "That's a big difference."

Matta is right, and shame on me for making the mistake. But for a large portion of the game, it seemed as if Ohio State couldn't buy a jumper, and it was ugly enough for me not to even think twice when reading the stat wrong. Granted, the Buckeyes did shoot nearly 50 percent from the floor in the second half to close out the road win – something they deserve credit for – but watching this team shoot jumpers is painful sometimes. And that's not going away.

• The Buckeyes' defense is still really good. Though Ohio State's shooting was poor, Illinois' was dramatically worse. And by the time the Buckeyes got going, their swarming defense forced turnovers on six of 10 possessions in the second half to slam the door shot. And when the game was over, Illinois only had 39 points on the scoreboard.

"That definitely feels good," senior point guard Aaron Craft said. "We have known all year that we were going to have to rely on our defense, and when we can come out on the road and hold a team below 40, that's when we know we're clicking. Our offense also fed off of that."

• Ohio State's shots of winning the Big Ten are gone, but ... This team should probably win their next four games with Northwestern, Penn State, Minnesota and Indiana looming on the schedule. If the Buckeyes somehow win the next four, that would give them eight wins in nine games. Though the conference championship is out of the question, Ohio State could stand to gain some momentum heading into March.

"The biggest thing for us is to continue to get better. That's all I am concerned with," Matta said. "I think this team still has a lot of basketball to play ... That's what excites me about this team - that they just keep coming."

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